This article appears in the AAP News and Journals Gateway Increasing Awareness of Sudden Death in Pediatric Epilepsy Together Gardiner Lapham, William Davis Gaillard, Joanna Sexter, Madison M. Berl The death of any child is tragic. When the death is sudden and unexpected, it can seem especially incomprehensible. Henry was 4 years old when he died only a few weeks after his epilepsy diagnosis; his parents were devastated and never knew that death could occur; no physician had discussed the possibility with them. Henry was an otherwise healthy child, had a history of febrile seizures, and died in his sleep before his epilepsy workup was complete and before his medication was likely therapeutic. Since Henry’s death 8 years ago, together and independently, Henry’s parents, pediatrician, and ne...

After a traumatic brain injury (TBI), people also experience major sleep problems, including changes in their sleep-wake cycle. A new study shows that recovering from these two conditions occurs in parallel. The study is published in the December 21, 2016, online issue of Neurology®, the medical journal of the American Academy of Neurology.

Neural stem cells have been found in epileptic brain tissue—outside the regions of the brain where they normally reside. In a group of patients who underwent surgery for epilepsy, over half had stem cells where healthy individuals do not have them, according to a study from Sahlgrenska Academy.

WORLD-first trial will deliver medication directly into the brain of epilepsy patients to sidestep the ­devastating side-effects of tablets. The pioneering treatment aims to be a game-changer for neurological conditions more widely by getting a drug directly where it is needed. The St Vincent’s Hospital team has implanted a pump in their first ­patient. The pump sends anti-epileptic medication from the stomach, through a tiny tube, into a cavity in the brain where it can diffuse into the areas causing the “electrical storm”. READ FULL STORY: http://www.heraldsun.com.au/news/victoria/melbourne-epilepsy-trial-delivers-medication-directly-into-brain-to-sidestep-side-effects/news-story/13612af0fd456d18583b60cd16d3102e

Researchers at the Krembil Neuroscience Centre’s (KNC) Canadian Concussion Centre (CCC) have identified symptom trends that may not only help predict how soon patients suffering from post-concussion syndrome (PCS) will recover, but also provide insight on how to treat those who experience persistent concussion symptoms.

A New York State study found that younger, not older women suffered an increase risk of stroke, both during pregnancy and in postpartum. Younger women — not older women — had an increased risk of stroke during pregnancy and the postpartum period compared to non-pregnant women of the same age, according to the results of a new study published online October 24, 2016 in JAMA Neurology. Overall, pregnancy-associated stroke (PAS) accounted for 15 percent of strokes in women aged 12 to 24 years; 20 percent of strokes in women aged 25 to 34 years; 5 percent of strokes in women aged 35 to 44 years; and 0.05 percent of strokes in women aged 45 to 50 years.

Researchers discover mass migration of inhibitory neurons into the brain’s frontal cortex after birth Researchers at UC San Francisco have discovered a previously unknown mass migration of inhibitory neurons into the brain’s frontal cortex during the first few months after birth, revealing a stage of brain development that had previously gone unrecognized. The authors hypothesize that this late-stage migration may play a role in establishing fundamentally human cognitive abilities and that its disruption could underlie a number of neurodevelopmental diseases. Most neurons of the cerebral cortex – the outermost layer of the brain responsible for advanced cognition – migrate outward from their birthplaces deep in the brain to take up their positions within the cortex....

Researchers at the University of Alabama at Birmingham have launched the first drug study aimed at preventing or delaying the onset of epilepsy in children with a genetic condition known as tuberous sclerosis complex. UAB is the lead institution and data center for the PREVeNT study, a national, multisite study funded by a $7 million grant from the National Institutes of Health. Tuberous sclerosis complex is a genetic disorder that causes tumors to form in many different organs. TSC particularly affects neurologic functions, often leading to seizures, developmental delay, intellectual disability and autism. About 80 percent of children with TSC develop epilepsy within the first three years of life.

Decreased cysteine/cystine ratio in plasma may serve as a redox biomarker in epilepsy UNIVERSITY OF COLORADO ANSCHUTZ MEDICAL CAMPUS Approximately 2.9 million people in the United States suffer from epilepsy, according to the CDC. For patients living with this diagnosis and their doctors it is often difficult to predict the onset or progression of chronic seizures. Thanks to a newly published study from the University of Colorado Skaggs School of Pharmacy and Pharmaceutical Sciences at the Anschutz Medical Campus, that may be changing. The study, led by Drs. Manisha Patel and Li-Ping Liang of the University of Colorado Anschutz Medical Campus, was recently published in Redox Biology, a journal of the Society for Redox Biology and Medicine (SFRBM).